Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ROAD RACE AMA/MBNA SUPERBIKE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (Left) Yoshimura Suzuki teammates Pascal Picotte (21) and Larry Pegram (72) both had little problems during the race but were still able to finish fifth and eighth, respectively. (Below) Doug Chandler rode an intelligent race, finishing second to Russell but taking over the lead in the AMA Superbike National Championship. scuffed some tires in, and out of five tires only !:W0 were good. That just started the day off. We kept in there and plugged away. I'm pretty happy. We had four stops and my pace would have put me in the top three and once in there I could have picked it up a bit more - so 1don't feel too bad." 'Edwards worked his way around' Chandler' on the ninth lap, but he would have to pit early for a rear tire on lap 14 and he wouldn't be heard from again until the final laps. Chandler, meanwhile, carried on as his championship rivals started to fall by the wayside. By the 25th lap, all the top men had pitted at least once and the race was effectively over. Russell led Chandler by 18 seconds and Edwards trailed in third by another six seconds. Kipp was holding down third, though that would change as Picotte was starting to run him down, despi te fighting a severe front-brake problem. "I had no brakes," said Picotte, his GSXR750 fitted with Tokicos. "From the first lap, no brakes. From turn one to the first horseshoe I had to give one click (on the brake adjuster), then two clicks. The dogleg I was fine, then exit of second horseshoe two more clicks, then four clicks going to the chicane - about 15 clicks, every lap. The whole race. After about three laps the lever got really firm, but then it'd go again. It was really tough, man. I didn't think I would make it." Kipp, too, was havingprobIems as his Yamaha kept jumping out of second gear. Behind them came a lonely Crevier, then DuHamel, Pegram and Russell, who had already put a lap on Yates and Carr. Russell's lead would continue to grow and the race turned into a rather dull parade, eventually causing even die-hard pace-car cynics to wish for'one. It came on the 49th lap. "I wanted it to be bigger than that," Russell said of his lead. "I got it to 22 (seconds) and I thought, 'Don't be silly. We're doing pretty good.' The race is long and you need as big of a cushion as you can get because you don't know what can happen. The last set of tires I had weren't as good as the first two. I even thought about pitting when the pace car came out. I thought I had a big' enough lead that I could pit and get ell back out before I ever caught the pace "<::' car. But I just.let the tires cool down and ~ I was kinda thinking it would end behind the pace car, but it was good that we didn't. I hope the guy (Dean Mizdal) '2 8 is okay out there, the guy who fell down." . Some of those. in the large crowd may have thought the pace car would make a difference, that Chandler would be able to make a move on Russell to make the race a close ore. Chandler, though, thought otherwise. In fact, his thoughts were more on staying ahead of Edwards than ~n catching Russell, who had 13 riders between himself and the Kawasaki rider. ''The last tire I had seemed to be kind of funny on the left side," Chandler said of his front Dunlop. "It had a hop in it. This morning, in warmup, they had one backwards on me and I chunked it. So when that thing started hopping I was thinking, 'Oh, great, I've got another one on backwards.' We used the same compounds, even off the start. And they all worked very well, the last front just felt a little funny. I didn't really want fo push nothing. 'Once we got lined up, Colin (Edwards) was only four or five guys back and 1 thought, 'Oh, great.' I was more worried about him catching me than me trying to get up there. With that many guys in front of me, well those guys were just parked up. He (Russell) was just a bit better everywhere today. He seemed to get through the traffic really well and I was a bit timid and didn't Jake as many chances. After the first stop, we never saw anybody arid they (his pit crew) were always giving me pluses (on his pit board) so I didn't know if I was making up anyt,hing or ~here Scott was. They kind of left it up to' me to run my own race." Chandler was also well aware thai his rivals in 'the AMA Superbike Championship were having problems. "I thought it was Mat's (Mladin) bike I saw parked up in one," Chandler said. "I periodically would look at the scoreboard corning down the front straightaway and I could see Miguel (DuHamel) was down a ways. Right there, after the last stop, he (DuHamel) was just in front of me so lfigured he had some trouble." So the only real drama came from Crevier, who was hell-bent on finishing higher than sixth. To do so he needed a new tire, so he opted to pit when he saw the pace car four laps from the end of the race. The strategy worked to perfection. "It was pretty simple - if there's an opening to go get tires you have to do it," Crevier said. "But they didn't call me in. 1 was thinking, 'The smartest thing to do is call me in now because I'm'17-18 seconds ahead of seventh or eighth place.' I pointed in at 'em and I didn't get any response - they lOOked like they were cleaning up and stuff like that. I jus.t said, 'Well, I'm going in.' When I carne in the stands were on the other side of the wall and Merlyn (Plumlee, his tuner) asked me what I wanted. I said, 'A hot tire, man.' They managed to get one on. They wanted to attack my front, but I thought that would be a bad thing to do. I just got a rear and went' back out in front of the pace car. I was having a bad race - I just didn't have the strength in my knees to carry me for the superbike race. I'm still a bit weak and lighter than I was before. I got ill. But it's not just me, I wrecked a bike and that bike wasn't the same. It just wasn't a great race. I just decided to take a chance and I got a soft (Dunlop) 296. I knew we had one, I just didn't know it'd be so far away. I drove under (Torn) Kipp, got by Pascal (Picotte) and drove under Aaron (Yates) - no problem. I'm just totally stoked because I'm not usually a great thinker. My crew's worked hard and I just want to pay them back with good results." The man parked directly behind Russell in the lineup that ran behind the pace car was DuHamel. The French Canadian was a lap down, but he ran with Russell in his run to the flag, leading him out of the chicane in a scene reminiscent of a year ago. Russell, though, wanted no part of a repeat performance, even if DuHamel was a lap behind. At one point, Russell had, a big slide exiting the International Horseshoe, something he later blamed on the tire cooling off behind the pace car. He was determined to be the' first to cross the line. "He wasn't going to beat me to the line again this year - there' was no way," Russell said. ''I'd have crashed him out before that happened." . And so the 56th running of the Daytona 200 came to a close, fittingly with Russell at the front. Chandler crossed the line in second, with Edwards third. "I'm real happy with it," Chandler said. "It's my best Daytona finish. I was kinda able to run with Scott (Russell) early on, but he just got away in some of the early backrnarkers and I just wasn't up to running that pace." So what did it feel like to become the first man in· 56 years to win four Daytona 200s? '1t hasn't really set in," Russell said. "I almost knew I was going to win the race today so I don't feel any different than I did this morning. It's kinda like, 'Wow, is it already over? I did it.' It's nice. It's a nice feeling and it means a lot to me. I'm not done yet. I'll be back for number five next year if I can and just keep building on what we've done here. I had a really good time in Daytona. Every time I corne here it's fun. They're all good. The one I fell down and got back up was good, the one I started in the back was good, the one where I just nipped Polen at the end... they're all good. This one was just like a long practice session. That's what it seemed like." With Crevier blasting by Picotte, who .had run out of gas, at the line, that left sixth to Kipp. Pegram ended up seventh with his teammate Yates eighth. Neither' was too happy. ''The first five or six laps, the bike ran good," Pegram said. "Then something happened. I don't know if it was the ignition or what, but it wouldn't rev up after that. I went from doing 52s to doing 56s. After that I just rode around. I felt really good in those early laps. I got a bad start, but I passed (Steve) Crevier, Miguel (DuHamel), Pascal (Picotte). Then it took a crap and I was done after that. That was the first time I was ever really able to pass those guys I was feeling good. It might be ignition because it hit the rev limiter one time and after that it wouldn't run." "For some reason, we've taken some' steps backwards," Yates said. "It's really been difficult for me. I'm just getting no feedback, no feel from this suspension. This is w.hat we started with last year

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